Which players would I offload from Newcastle this summer?

The first player that should be offloaded from Newcastle United, in my opinion, is Papiss Demba Cisse. I doubt the 31-year-old is going to get regular game time in the championship next season under Rafa Benitez. One of the main reasons for this would be the fact that the Senegalese forward scored only three goals in 21 appearances for the magpies last season and only managed 9 shots on target during the entirety of the campaign, which for a club the size of Newcastle who had a top 8 target, this is simply unacceptable and I expect Cisse to be sold this summer.

The next player that should be taken off the books is a player that has been used very sparingly at St James Park in the 2 years he has been at the club, this may be to do with the fact he has only scored one goal in the league since joining the club, against an opponent that was already relegated in the previous weeks (Queens Park Rangers), in the 2015/16 season Riviere only played for 70 minutes across three games, all of which Newcastle lost. Getting him off of the wage bill will also free up a rumoured £35,000 a week.

The next player that should be heading for the magpies exit door is strangely enough arguably Newcastle’s best player, with 11 goals from the full 38 games from central midfield or the left wing. I think Newcastle should sell Georginio Wijnaldum due to the fact he would still sell for a hefty amount of money and Newcastle could spend that to strengthen other parts of the team. There has been a rumoured £25m price tag put on Wijnaldum’s head, so if he did leave a lot more faces could make a move to the relegated St James Park club. The player has also told his agent to find him a new club as he heads for the exit early into his Newcastle career. This may come as a blow to Newcastle though due to the fact he was obviously the top goal scorer for the club and he also had the third best shot accuracy in the squad with 29 of his 41 shots hitting the target while successfully completing 50 take-ons this season.

Fabricio Coloccini is the player that should be next to leave, he is 34 and to be quite honest, he has not been at his best for about four years now. I do not see Coloccini staying in the North East for much longer as he did not play a single minute under Benitez in the final 10 games of the season, under McClaren he played all but two of the games, scoring one goal against Aston Villa in the home fixture in December, he did not show enough desire in a Newcastle shirt to warrant pulling on the famous black & white strip again in my opinion, this is in part to not even jogging back when he is played in centre back and just generally not looking at it.

Janmaat is in the same boat as Wijnaldum as far as I am concerned, Janmaat does not want to be at the club and if Rafa Benitez does choose to sell Janmaat he could still collect a fair amount of money back on a player that would just disrupt the dressing room if kept. Janmaat was not a bad player last season when most other players were, this is in part due to his tackle success rate which was at 49% which for a relegated team is not bad at all, he always liked to push forward as part of his game also with 55% of take-ons attempted being successful, he managed to also grab two goals in the Barclays Premier League this season against Watford and Tottenham Hotspur.

There is not much to say about Jack Colback other than him being a liability for Newcastle, one game he can have the game of his life, the next he cannot kick a ball. If Newcastle United are to get out of the championship at the first time of asking they need consistency over the 46 games, this would in my opinion mean a Jack Colback exit as I do not see him being a leader in Newcastle’s midfield which they so desperately need as they never replaced Cabaye. There is no question over Colback’s passion to get Newcastle to where they should be its just a question of if he is good enough to do that job which I personally don’t think he is up to it.

Yoan Gouffran is the next choice to show the door, if I was Benitez I would let him go as he has only played 8 times this season, scoring 0 goals in the process and registering 1 shot on target in those games, in the entire year he had 1 chance in the final third, this would be an obvious sign to sell Gouffran and look for better options out there and clear some of the dead wood.

Moussa Sissoko is one of the most frustrating players for Newcastle fans due to the fact most people know he is a good player but does not put the effort in for the majority of games, you could see what he could do against Tottenham on the final day of the season, when Newcastle ran out 5-1 winners. The majority of Newcastle fans think this was to put himself in the shop window as he has expressed his desire to leave Newcastle for a couple of years now. Sissoko played 37 games in the league for the magpies this season, scoring one goal and getting seven assists. Sissoko in recent weeks has expressed his desire to leave once again this time for arsenal to play in the champions league. I can imagine the money off of this transfer deal would probably be going into funding the rest of the team or opening the door for a marquee signing in the north east.